Tupac's Infamous Shooting Proved He Wasn't All Talk About Police Brutality

mural of tupac with a quote
Via Wikimedia Commons
Zain Murdock
October 23, 2022

We know the late Tupac Shakur for his pro-Black, anti-cop lyrics, but he also had the bite to match his bark. On Halloween night in 1993, Shakur reportedly was a bystander to two armed white men harassing a Black driver. Instead of driving away, he got out of his car and pulled out his gun.

Witnesses say one of the white men fired first and missed. Shakur shot him in the stomach, and the other in the behind. But that wasn’t the last Shakur would see of the bullies. They were actually off-duty police officers.

Tupac landed himself an assault charge.

Nevertheless, Shakur walked free. The trial revealed that both of the officers were intoxicated and that their gun was stolen from an evidence locker. 

Shakur had no regrets.

“White people got you believing that [I’m insane],” he said. “Just ‘cause I’m telling a nigga to … kill the muthafuckin’ cop that’s killing you ... That is not insane … That’s positive like a muthafucka.”

Of course, our people around the world still face retaliation for fighting police violence. But we have to protect each other – by any means necessary!

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